Why I simply couldn't leave this company

A story by Bobby de Vries

Started as an intern

End of 2015 I started at The Next Ad as an intern. This internship was my last internship and with that internship I would be graduating. The whole graduating process took a bit longer than planned, but because I did good work, they offered me a job at Media Injection before I actually received my diploma.

Fear of commitment

All my life I’ve had fear of commitment so when they offered me the job the fear came along too, even though I loved what I did and I loved my colleagues. Good bye student life, good bye social life, good bye parties. That’s how I saw it back then. Besides the fear of commitment, I have a big love for (South) Africa and in particular Cape Town (I have two tattoos to prove it). After my holiday in Cape Town, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe end of 2016, I fell in love with Africa again and decided to give up everything back home to trade it for a life in Cape Town. I quit my job in Amsterdam, found a job in Cape Town and started with my visa application.

The Next Ad goes skiing

A few weeks before my last working day in Amsterdam we went skiing with the company because of the milestone we reached. This weekend changed everything for me. I realised what an amazing company I was working at. I knew that before, but this weekend was more of a reality check for me. Cape Town isn’t running away from me, but this company is growing so rapidly, that when I come back it won’t be the same anymore. I’ve seen the company grow from twelve to thirty employees and it’s a beautiful thing to witness. As we are now growing faster than ever before, I can’t leave just yet.

The team we have here at The Next Ad and Media Injection isn’t just a hard working team. Of course, we work really hard to reach our personal goals, but we’re also having fun doing it and we motivate each other every single day. It’s not only motivating when someone says you are doing a great job or when someone congratulates you because you signed a new customer, but it’s even more motivating to do fun stuff outside the office. That way it’s not just the company that’s growing, but it’s also us that are personally growing as well.

Long story short, I, a former student living the party life, used to be afraid of the committed office life. Recently, I chose to give up my dream of leaving the country (to once again run away of my commitments), because this company and these colleagues are worth staying for.